Benedict Joseph Flaget

Benedict Joseph Flaget, (born Nov. 7, 1763, Contournat, Fr.—died Feb. 11, 1850, Louisville, Ky., U.S.), an influential figure in the development of the Roman Catholic church in the United States.

Flaget entered the Sulpician Society, was ordained in 1786/87, and taught theology. He was one of several Sulpicians sent in 1792 to establish the first Roman Catholic seminary in the United States. During the next 17 years he served as missionary to Vincennes, Ind.

Bishop John Carroll’s diocese of the United States was divided in 1808, and he consecrated Flaget (Nov. 4, 1810) as bishop of Bardstown, Ky.; his diocese extended from Kentucky to the Great Lakes, from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi. Flaget became highly influential in the councils of the U.S. church, and his various religious establishments included St. Thomas Seminary (1812), the Sisters of Loretto and the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (1812) for the elementary education of girls, and St. Joseph and St. Mary’s boys’ colleges. He visited Rome in 1835 and, at the request of Pope Gregory XVI, toured France (1837–39). He retired (1848) to ascetic solitude. The see, at his request, was moved to Louisville, where he is entombed in the Cathedral of the Assumption.